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Some of us remember when LBJ had enough dirt on the Senators that he got 72 to vote to cut off a filibuster and pass Civil Rights.

Prism is great. With Prism, Obama knows lots more about more people than LBJ ever did, and he can use that information to keep the world safe.

After the Gestapo and STASI, the Germans all hated Prism, but Obama knew enough about Merkel that she had to thank Obama for Prism, and she had to tell the German people that Prism had saved thousands of German lives (details classified Top Secret, so we can say no more).

Just think what the US president will be able to do with Prism. As the Greatest Force for Good in the World, the US President now has almost limitless power, and everyone should be eternally grateful that Prism is giving him this power to keep the world safe. (Not to mention keeping the US president safe from any effective criticism.)

The single biggest hit to Individual Liberties in the last 50 years was the passage of the “Patriot Act”. “Bill of Rights?? We don’t need no stinking Bill of Rights…” Thanks, John Ashcroft, and Darth Cheney!

I second olfart’s concern. I know the government as well as corporations are data-mining. I’m fairly careful what I put out there which corporates crave, and I’m savvy enough to not expose my likes & dislikes, especially on that farcebook. Most youngsters, though, seem indifferent or ignorant of the pitfalls. I think they’ll rue it one day. My daughter will certainly be made aware.I’m also pragmatic enough to be aware that governments data-mine, number crunch it to seek trends, patterns etc. Massive amounts of processing power needed to crunch through so much data….and it’s getting ever more massive; I don’t fall for the fear -mongering but I appear to have even fewer protections from governments without proper over-sight in place, or from callous politicians. That’s my biggest concern. If anything, what this NSA “revelation” (which has been an open secret in the security tech business for a fair while now) has shown me is that we should not allow complacency. Do not shrug off lack of over-sight so easily. Insist on it.

If corporations are so smart, why has Commonwealth Financial called me 500 times looking for Kim P_______?I ask the person robocalling, after waiting, if she has considered suicide, to make the world a better place.

One of the main reasons this isn’t getting the protest it deserves is because the question has shifted from “how can this hurt me?” to “how can WE use this to hurt THEM?”.Welcome to the Divided States of America.(And now cue the drones screaming “This is because of [insert hated politician here]!”, and proving my point exactly.)

The question is will you be able to do those things five, ten, or twenty years from now? Govenments seldom know how to regulate themselves. The line they won’t cross gets fuzzier and fades. Letting this go now means it will be harder to stop tomorrow.

It is a good cartoon. Mines require good air circulators to protect those working the mine. Keeping a close eye on the safeguards designed to protect people, like a dying canary, is the least we should do. The potential for abuse is enormous. The inevitability of abuse is nearly guaranteed. Mandatory penalties must be levied against those who abuse this resource.Respectfully,C.

About Robert Ariail

Clever and unpredictable, Ariail skewers politicians on both sides of the ideological fence with award-winning cartoons drawn for the Spartanburg, S.C., Herald-Journal. A celebrated artist, Ariail is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist (1995 and 2000) and was recently named the 2012 winner of the Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons, presented by the National Press Foundation.